The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) : $b Separate memoirsBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 1 (of 4) : $b Separate memoirs
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
W. Müller (_loc. cit._) has given a short but interesting account of the
development of the urinary system of Petromyzon. He finds that the
segmental ducts develop first of all as simple involutions from the
body-cavity. The anterior end of each then develops a glandular portion
which comes to communicate by a number of openings with the body-cavity.
Subsequently to the development of this glandular portion the remainder of
the kidneys appears in the posterior portion of the body-cavity; and before
the close of embryonic life the anterior glandular portion atrophies.
The comparison of this system with that of a Selachian is very simple. The
first developed duct is the segmental duct of a Selachian, and the
glandular portion developed at its anterior extremity, which is permanent
in Myxine but embryonic in Petromyzon, is, as W. Müller has rightly
recognized, equivalent to the head-kidney of Amphibians, which remains
undeveloped in Selachians. It is, according to my previously stated view,
the glandular portion of the first segmental organ or the segmental duct.
The series of orifices by which this communicates with the body-cavity are
due to the division of the primary opening of the segmental duct. This is
shewn both by the facts of their development in Petromyzon given by Müller,
as well as by the occurrence of a similar division of the primary orifice
in Amphibians, which is mentioned later in this paper. In a note in my
original paper (_loc. cit._) I stated that these openings were equivalent
to the segmental involutions of Selachians. This is erroneous, and was due
to my not having understood the description given in a preliminary paper of
Müller (_Jenaische Zeitschrift_, 1873). The large development of this
glandular mass in the Cyclostome and Osseous fishes and in embryo
Amphibians, implies that it must at one time have been important. Its
earlier development than the remainder of the kidneys is probably a result
of the specialized function of the first segmental organ.
The remainder of the kidney in Cyclostomes is equivalent to the kidney of
Selachians. Its development from segmental involutions has not been
recognized. If these segmental involutions are really absent it may perhaps
imply that the simplicity of the Cyclostome kidneys, like that of so many
other of their organs, is a result of degeneration rather than a primitive
condition.
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